How To Improve Employee Engagement

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the degree to which an employee is emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally invested in their work. Simply put, engagement is the deep connection to work and a sense of purpose that creates extra energy and commitment. And it’s key to fostering a healthy workplace culture. 

People often confuse employee engagement with job satisfaction. Engagement is much more than that. It’s that burst of energy you feel when you are truly engaged in work—not about how satisfied you are while you’re there.

14 ways to improve employee engagement in the workplace.

Now that you know what employee engagement is, here are 14 strategies to improve employee engagement at your organization.

1. Make listening to employees a priority. According to our research, 95.7% of employees want to be able to give at least some type of feedback and 57.2% want to give feedback at least monthly. Listening to your employees can happen in all sorts of contexts. What’s right in one might not work in another, but every avenue to connect holds potential to help employees feel heard.
2. Acknowledge employee feedback. Employees feel heard when their requests and feedback are acknowledged. Proactively responding to feedback can prevent misunderstandings that, in the long run, create a negative work culture, reduce employee engagement and increase turnover.
3. Provide regular feedback to employees. Develop a consistent process for giving feedback (timely, specific and actionable) that helps employees see a clear path for their own professional development. Include both positive and constructive suggestions that enable an employee to grow and develop.
4. Support managers. Managers account for up to 70% of variance in employee engagement. Many employees even say their immediate manager matters more than C-suite leadership when it comes to well-being support and engagement. So support managers by giving them the training and tools to nurture engagement across their teams. You can also ask managers what they need to feel supported in their roles through a quick pulse survey or focus groups. Then, act on what you hear to build trust and show you care.
5. Make the connection between individual roles and the mission of the organization. Employees must be able to see how their individual job contributes to the larger organization. Encourage managers to to clearly and consistently communicate how employees’ individual work contributes to achieving the company’s greater mission and purpose.
6. Encourage leaders to be active role models of engagement. Leaders must be honest communicators and act as examples for others to create an engaged workforce. For example, leaders can act as role models by supporting and being personally involved in initiatives throughout the company. It’s important that employees believe in their leaders and the direction of the company to improve overall engagement.
7. Provide the right tools and resources. Consider an employee engagement solution, tool, or platform like TINYpulse by WebMD Health Services that allows employees to report and track their engagement. Using a tool or program helps drive engagement by demonstrating to employees that engagement is an organization-wide priority.
8. Be intentional about building culture. Conduct a culture audit to understand what aspects of your culture support well-being and engagement and which aspects might be detracting from it. Make sure that your culture strategy aligns with your business strategy. 
9. Create a culture of recognition. TINYpulse research revealed 88.2% of employees indicated recognition would be beneficial for increasing social and cultural connection at work. If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to recognition, find out how people want to be recognized with a survey. By regularly acknowledging employees and offering tokens of appreciation, you can help build a culture of recognition while strengthening connections at work.
10. Show you care about the whole employee. Be sure to emphasize to employees that you value their well-being—not just because good well-being can enhance their contributions to the workplace, but because you value them as people outside the office, too. Did you know employees who feel their company cares for them are 2x as likely to be engaged at work and 4x less likely to suffer from stress and burnout?
11. Support a healthy lifestyle. Well-being is inextricably linked to engagement. Provide employees with access to the necessary tools and support for maintaining health across all the dimensions of well-being–physical, mental, social connections and financial wellness. Consider offering a well-being platform like WebMD ONE to help create a culture of well-being.
12. Dedicate time for teams to openly discuss ideas on how to function better as a team. Create a shared norm of providing encouragement and support for peers with some fun competition, without pressuring each other. Create a psychologically safe work environment where all employees can try new things together without the fear of being reprimanded for failure.
13. Offer interaction and collaboration across teams. Help employees see themselves as part of something larger and create connections between individuals who would not normally meet across their usual day-to-day. Use social networks to report engagement successes and barriers to the organization.
14. Create workspaces that feel positive and energizing. Some things to consider include setting your hybrid or remote team up for success by offering a home office stipend. Encourage all workers to spend time outside each day to recharge. Allow in-office workers the freedom to make their spaces their own.

How to measure employee engagement.

To improve employee engagement, you need to first know how to measure it. Collecting consistent and honest feedback from employees will give you the data you need to calculate your organization’s engagement score. Science-backed surveys and anonymous communication tools can help leaders discover the areas that matter most to employees, so they can focus on the actions that will make the greatest impact on overall culture. Engagement and feedback software, like TINYpulse by WebMD Health Services, lets managers create effective communication channels with employees using employee recognition tools, anonymous surveys, advanced reporting, one-on-one meeting insights and more. 

Even the best companies struggle with employee engagement. Yet it is possible to improve engagement by offering consistent employee recognition, the opportunity to provide feedback, a connection to the organization’s larger purpose, support for managers and a commitment to employees’ total well-being. 

Are you ready to improve employee engagement? Contact us at connect@webmd.net to learn how TINYpulse by WebMD Health Services can help or request a demo today.